Tony Snell is well-known for being a solid wing player who is a decent shooter and can play some good defense. This season though, he hasn't really had much playing time on the Portland Trail Blazers.
Today, Snell's name was trending this morning partly due to him being moved to the Pelicans in a trade that sent CJ McCollum to New Orleans. However, NBA Central also found an interesting fact about Tony Snell: he is shooting 100% from the FT line over the last 3 seasons, including this year.
Obviously, there's some context to this. Tony Snell isn't a particularly high-volume free throw shooter, only shooting 0.3 free throw attempts a game since the 2019-20 season. However, there is no doubt that he is proficient at free throws when he has to knock them down. That is definitely an important quality to have in the game
On the New Orleans Pelicans, Tony Snell will likely get sporadic minutes at the wing as part of their bench. While he hasn't been particularly efficient this year, he is a career 39.4% 3PT shooter who can space the floor given the opportunity. He notably shot an astounding 56.9% from the 3PT range when healthy last year, though that only came on around 2.3 attempts a game.
It will be interesting to see how the New Orleans Pelicans do with their new acquisitions. The trade deadline has not yet hit, so it is possible that they haven't made all of their moves yet. They now have a new big 3 featuring Brandon Ingram, Zion Williamson, and CJ McCollum. They are also in a play-in spot, currently holding on to the 10th seed. There is no doubt that they could potentially make some noise next season, and perhaps we'll even see them get all the way to the playoffs this season.
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